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Welcome to the William A. Karges Fine Art Blog, where you'll be able to find information about Early California Paintings, including Museum Exhibitions, Current News, Events, and our gallery's new acquisitions of original paintings created between 1870 and 1940 by a wide variety of Early California Artists. We'll feature biographies, photographs, links to websites of interest to collectors, video tours, and detailed histories of some of California's most influential and intriguing artists.

Monday, April 15, 2013

The
curse of the art historian is to be forever asking questions. Where?
When? How? But every so often (and generally at the most
frustrating moment), we find ourselves faced with an informational
hollow, a query to which there are no search results. Such it is with
the enigmatic painter whom the world has come to know as Marion
Kavanagh Wachtel.

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Records on the artist’s
exhibition history, educational background, family, and ouvre are
fairly extensive; information on her personal life, however, is not.
We know that in 1904, Ms. Kavanaugh added the surname Wachtel
– an understandable consequence of her marriage to fellow artist,
Elmer Wachtel. Following her wedding, however, Marion chose another,
somewhat more enigmatic name-change: she abandoned the fourth vowel
in Kavanaugh, and it became the middle-name, Kavanagh.
Scholarship on exactly what precipitated this latter change is
sparse, though the move was not without precedent. Six years
earlier, soon-to-be-renowned artist GranvilleRedmond changed
his name from Grenville in a similarly befuddling move.
Whether these subtle rebrandings affected the artists’ respective
rises to prominence is unknown.

The events surrounding
the meeting of Marion and Elmer are the matter of some debate, as
well. The prevailing theory states that the two were introduced
through renowned Dusseldorf-cum-Barbizon School painter, William
Keith. By the turn of the century, Keith had long since established
himself as a leading California landscape artist – so well known,
in fact, that he was referred to as the “Dean of California
painters.” It makes sense, then, that he was well acquainted with
East Coast transplant and emerging Southern California landscapist,
Elmer Wachtel.

Marion, for her part, had
spent the last decade immersed in her painting. She studied under
William Merritt Chase at the Art Institute of Chicago, taught courses
for her alma mater, and traveled the Santa Fe Railway on a commission
to illustrate the quintessential American Southwest. By the turn of
the century she was widely regarded as one of the nation’s premier
watercolorists – renowned for her bold tonalism and technical
precision.

"Indian Summer" - SOLD

In late 1903, as the
story goes, Marion was in San Francisco to exhibit landscapes
depicting an area surrounding the estate of wealthy patron and
entrepreneur, Elwood Cooper. Her pieces were well received,
positively reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle, and
garnered the artist a measure of positive attention in the Bay Area.
It is here that the artist came to the attention of the
aforementioned Keith – and here that the general consensus among
historians diverges.

One story says that
Marion was studying directly under Keith for some period of time in
San Francisco. Lacking definite bibliographic evidence, some will
venture no further than to say that the two knew each other in
passing. Those that assert the more intimate relationship go on to
say that it is Keith who referred Marion to Elmer, the latter
residing in LA at the time. Still others posit that it was of her own
volition that Marion traveled to Southern California where she
encountered the charming Elmer.

"Santa Paula" - SOLD

Whichever story is true,
it so happened that in 1904 Marion wed Elmer, and the two began their
artistic lives together in Southern California. The couple settled in
the Arroyo Seco near Pasadena. For the next 25 years, they would
travel the region, painting the landscape as they saw it – Marion
in watercolor, Elmer in oil. Marion became famous for her immaculate,
deliberate washes; her vivid descriptions of the California
landscape. Together with Elmer, their work was highly sought after
and exhibited around the country, from San Francisco to Chicago to
New York.

Though Marion received
critical acclaim in her own right, watercolor as a medium was at the
time still viewed as subordinate to oil (it isn’t until the 1920s
that watercolor gained wide acceptances as high art). It is an
interesting question, then, why an artist such as Marion – so
renowned for her technical prowess – never sought the accolades
afforded the medium of oil.

Although the official
record on the matter is scant, historians are nothing if not happy to
speculate.

It has been proposed that
Marion refused to paint in oil out of deference to her husband,
Elmer. Perhaps presaging the tumultuous relationship of Jackson
Pollack and Lee Krasner in the mid-20th century, she was
happy to avoid comparison and inevitable competition with her artist
husband. This analysis gains credence through the events following
Elmer’s death in 1929. For several years afterward, Marion was
unable to bring herself to paint at all. When she finally picked up a
brush in the early 1930s, she burst onto the scene with something the
art community never expected: paintings in oil.

"Sierra Scene" - SOLD

In addition to a change
in media, her palette brightened considerably. Whether this change
was an homage to her late husband, or a personal expression that
could only find voice after his death, remains a mystery.

Marion continued to paint
and exhibit, both in watercolor and in oil, until her death in 1954.
To this day, the truth behind her personal story remains largely
obscured. Who was this enigmatic artist, really?

The work of Marion
Kavanagh Wachtel is held in the collections of the Los Angeles County
Museum, the Irvine Museum, the Orange County Museum, the Santa Fe
Railway Co., and the LA County Museum of Natural History.

Rob
Pierce

William
A. Karges Fine Art

For
more information on Marion Kavanagh Wachtel, including available
canvases, please visit us online at www.kargesfineart.com, or email
the author at rob@kargesfineart.com

About Me

With gallery locations in Santa Monica and Carmel, Karges Fine Art specializes in assisting private collectors seeking original museum quality Early California paintings created between 1870 and 1940. Internationally recognized as a leader in the sales, purchasing, and consignment of fine works of art, our staff looks forward to sharing with you our knowledge and enthusiasm for the paintings from this remarkable period in art history.

Whitney Ganz, Director, Santa Monica

B.A, Art History, Stanford University, 1979

I have been the director of William A. Karges Fine Art since 1988. William A. Karges Fine Art is considered by many to be the leading gallery in the nation that specifically specializes in paintings done by late 19th & early 20th century California artists. During this period, I have bought and sold literally thousands of paintings. I am considered one of the leading experts in this field, especially in regards to current market conditions, and have appraised paintings for both private collectors and major museums. I am frequently contacted by the leading auction houses for my opinion on current market conditions and authenticity.

I have served as the President and Vice-President of the Historical Collections Committee of the Laguna Art Museum and as the Program Chairman and Treasurer of the American Art Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

I have also participated in a number panel discussions, symposiums, and lectures as an expert in early California art and have produced five major monographs on certain early California artists. In addition, I have consulted on virtually every museum exhibition that features the artists from the above period over the last twenty years. I am also acknowledged in virtually every museum publication that highlights early California artists during this same time span.

Patrick Kraft, Director, Carmel

Patrick Kraft was born in Los Angeles in 1957. For 26 years Patrick’s father, William Kraft, was head percussionist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra as well as composer-in-residence and for two years, Assistant Conductor. Patrick received a D.E.U.G. I degree from the Universite de Poitiers, France in l978 and his B.A. degree in European History and French from UCSB in l979, followed by an MBA from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in 1981. In 1987 Patrick was hired by William Karges to open William A. Karges Fine Art in Carmel and has been the Director of the Carmel gallery to this day.